now since I am proud owner of a HX1 I vote totally unbiased for the HX1.
But to be honest I just shot a nearly noiseless video and measured with the camera first: ISO 3200 1/25 sec 2.8 It lacks color but everything is nice and visible even the auto focus works.

on a different note, Vimeo just changed their storage policy:

Starting August 1st, basic accounts' original source files will be stored for one week from the upload date, after which they will be removed. Of course the converted Vimeo video will always be there in the Vimeo player, ready to be watched again and again, anywhere you choose to embed or share it. We will also still provide a download link so people can save the converted file to their computer (in MP4 format).

This new one-week policy applies to all basic accounts' videos uploaded from this point onwards. For videos that were uploaded before this blog post, those original files will be available until August 1st, to give you some time to download them if you need to. After August 1st, those files will also be removed.

For Plus users nothing will change: we're going to continue hosting your original video source files for both your existing videos and any new videos you upload.

pew, Gordon I put in several hours to honestly compare the videos.
I was looking just for quality and detail. Since it is next to impossible to have 4 HD screens parallel running the 4 videos simultaneously I did the next best thing. I grabbed comparable frames and compared them.
In the end to check my findings I checked the histograms from the frames too. It is a bit long, otherwise I would post it here.
You are welcome to use nothing, parts or all if you want to add things to your comparison website.

It seems, that the reason why there is not much difference from the video quality between a more than $3000 Camera and a less than $500 camera is that they both do not even come close to the 1920x1080 resolution.
A test from digitalcamerainfo.com states that:
Video Sharpness
The sharpness that a camcorder actually produces is rarely the same number that the manufacturer advertises. For instance, camcorders that output a 1920 x 1080 picture are not actually capturing one thousand nine-hundred and twenty horizontal lines of information. That's simply the size of the "container" that the camcorder outputs (also known as the resolution). In fact, there are lots of ways that manufacturers can play with the numbers, emphasizing capabilities of the lens, or the sensor, or something else.

The 5D Mark II captured decently sharp video. In our testing, the camera measured 700 line widths per picture height (lw/ph) horizontal and 650 lw/ph vertical. This is very close to the results we measured on both the Canon T1i and Panasonic GH1. The Canon HF S100 had the best sharpness of this bunch, coming in with 800 lw/ph horizontal and 650 lw/ph vertical. When testing the vertical sharpness on the 5D Mark II we noticed its image had similar aliasing and blur to the Canon HF S100. All this data is taken from testing the cameras and camcorder in their Full HD (1920 x 1080) modes.

So do I understand that right that the actual usable resolution is 0.5 megapixel and not 2 megapixel ?

1. (best) Sony! Very good image, very good stabilization!
2. Panasonic (image stabilization not very efficient), but good definition.
3...
4. (last) Canon D50, may be in the next generation they will have a decent video mode. The question is: why?

Their mics do not pick up any bass. In the others, you can clearly hear the rumbling of the engine(s). I like the sound of the SX1 the best. The mics on the SX1 pick up fine details that bring pleasure to the scene. To me, audio quality is a major factor. You should post these on Youtube. All the videos jump around like crazy on the Vimeo player. I don't have any issues playing Youtube videos. Thanks for the comparison.

I posted them on vimeo so that people can download the original files for evaluation on their own computer - that's definitely recommended over watching them in the vimeo or YT players! Also YT folk are now used to my video reviews, so if I just posted a sample, it would confuse a few of them...

Thanks =) I was just thinking that it may help the masses if you posted on Youtube as well. When I play videos on Youtube, they don't skip frames like when I try to watch the ones from the comparison. I don't think most people will go through the trouble of downloading the videos to their own system to review. And even if they did do that, their computer might not be powerful enough to play the clips, or their software might not play them properly.

And I am very interested to hear what you your opinion is of all these hybrids video quality compared to each other as you have access to see what it looks like straight from the camera hooked up to HDTV... This would give me (A potential Buyer) the most accurate opinion... Also I am interested to hear how you think the FZ35 would stack up? I hear it is better in low light then the SX1....

I love this site and I didnt know NZ is so beautiful, I will have to take my wife and kids to visit

Sample images and videos provided by the manufacturer are always going to be under best conditions - I try and show how it'll look when used in normal, often less ideal circumstances.

As for comparing them all, you'd really have to download the video samples I provide and take a look for yourself - they do all look very good under the roight conditions. The biggest problem concerns handling and focusing which often comes up way below that of a dedicated camcorder. If you understand and work around the limitations, the quality can be great from a DSLR though.